Devils Advance to Finals After Ending Rangers’ Season

The Devils' Adam Henrique, far right, scored the winning goal in overtime.Credit
Barton Silverman/The New York Times

NEWARK — On May 25, 1994, the Devils stood on the verge of eliminating the Rangers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, but blew a 2-0 lead and lost the game and the series.

So it was again in Game 6 on May 25, 2012. Martin Brodeur was the man in the Devils’ net both games, living a bad dream and forced to relive it almost two decades later.

But late Friday night, he and the Devils exorcised the ghosts of the 1994 Mark Messier-led Rangers.

Adam Henrique, a rookie, scored off a wild scramble in front of Henrik Lundqvist 1 minute 3 seconds into overtime, giving the Devils an electrifying 3-2 victory at Prudential Center, sending them to the Stanley Cup finals against the Los Angeles Kings.

Henrique, who scored the overtime winner in Game 7 of the first round against Florida, danced to the corner boards and leapt against the glass as his teammates swarmed him.

The six Rangers on the ice knelt around their net, frozen in dejection.

“This is to go to the big dance,” said Brodeur, 40, wearing a youthful smile after making 33 saves. “Along the way we beat a big rival, especially for me, from 18 years ago. Winning against them on the big stage — not just for me, but for the fans in New Jersey, always taking a second seat to these guys — we made a lot of people happy.”

For a long while, the ominous specter of the Rangers’ 4-2 Game 6 victory at the Meadowlands in 1994 haunted the Devils. The Rangers made no guarantees of victory on the eve of Game 6, as Messier had, but like those Rangers of old, they did not give up when the match looked dire after Ryan Carter and Ilya Kovalchuk staked the Devils to a 2-0 first-period lead on two power-play goals.

In the second, the Rangers cut the deficit in half when Coach John Tortorella put his winger from the old Soviet Union, Ruslan Fedotenko, on the top line, and Fedotenko scored. In 1994, Coach Mike Keenan put Alexei Kovalev on the top line in the second period, and Kovalev scored the Rangers’ first goal. The Rangers’ captain, Ryan Callahan, scored to tie the game at 2-2 by deflecting a shot past Brodeur. In 1994 the Rangers’ captain, Messier, scored on Brodeur to make it 2-2.

The similarities ended there. Messier scored twice more in the third period to win it as then the Rangers won Game 7 at Madison Square Garden and later their first Stanley Cup in 54 years.

Brodeur and the Devils are going to the championship series, their fifth trip since that 1994 loss to the Rangers. They won the cup finals in 1995 and 2000, lost in 2001 and won again in 2003.

In none of those trips to the finals did the Devils beat the Rangers, leaving that ’94 defeat an open wound.

This year, they finally did go through the Rangers. The scar is healed.

“The only guy who bothers the Rangers as much as Marty is Lou,” said Devils Coach Pete DeBoer, referring to New Jersey’s longtime general manager Lou Lamoriello. “Those guys have been through this rivalry for 20 years.”

For the Rangers, a year of surprising promise and high achievement came to an end. They had one of the best regular seasons in their history and finished first in the conference, but they could not survive the determined sixth-seeded Devils.

The Rangers’ surge began in July with the signing of Brad Richards, the hotly pursued free agent playmaker, and continued through a monthlong season-opening road trip to Europe and the West Coast while the Garden was being renovated.

They weathered questions about the off-season death of Derek Boogaard, their enforcer of the previous campaign; thrived amid the hype and backstage scrutiny of HBO’s “24/7” series, rallying to win the Winter Classic in Philadelphia with two unanswered third-period goals; and wound up with 51 victories in an 82-game schedule.

Lundqvist (26 saves) rose to the top of his profession, Marian Gaborik recaptured his scoring touch with 41 goals, Dan Girardi was recognized as an all-star caliber defenseman and Callahan was hailed as the heart-and-soul captain who personified the relentless effort the Rangers became known for. Under Tortorella’s demanding coaching, second- and first-year pros like Ryan McDonagh, Derek Stepan, Carl Hagelin and, in the playoffs, Chris Kreider made significant contributions.

But the seeds of the Rangers’ demise started to sprout at the beginning of March. They suddenly turned into a .500 hockey club, winning exactly half their last 22 regular-season games.

They were almost caught for first in the East by Pittsburgh, and lost the Presidents’ Trophy on the last night of the season.

In the first playoff round the eighth-seeded Ottawa Senators took them to a Game 7 they won by 2-1, and in the second round against the seventh-seeded Washington Capitals they needed another 2-1 Game 7 victory to advance.

Finally, in the Devils series, they lost the last three games — only their second three-game losing streak of 2011-12.

The defeat also left their playoff won-loss record at .500, 10-10.

And for the sixth consecutive game the team that scored the first goal won the match.

But the young Rangers’ resilience, grit and invaluable experience accrued from a deep playoff run has set them up as a team to beat next season.

Tortorella said: “I really like what we have here. They developed an identity, their mind-set, and I think it showed tonight.”